“Though it’s no fun to stand all this drenching,” said Ned. “Now that the car is safe I vote we go up or down the road and see if we can’t find a hotel or some place to stay the rest of the night.”
“No,” said Jerry, “we’d better stay here, near the car. No telling what might happen.”
“Then what’s the matter with getting in the car?” asked Bob. “The canopy will shelter us.”
“No,” again said the tall lad, “it’s too risky. The chances are that the car won’t go over, but I’m not going to take the one chance that might be against us. It won’t be long until morning, and then we can see what needs to be done.”
But the wet night was miserable enough for all of them. Their shelter gave little protection against the downpour which kept up until nearly morning, and they were tired and cramped from the positions they had to occupy. But no one found much fault, though all were glad when a faint light in the east told of the coming of the dawn.
As soon as it was light enough to see, they inspected the position of the car. It was perilous enough, and the rising sun showed how near they had come to going over the brink.
“Can we pull her back?” asked Ned.
But they could not move the machine, which had settled in the mud.
“It’ll take a team of horses,” decided Jerry. “Now that we can see the car isn’t in any danger of going over, we can go for help.”
“One of us had better stay,” suggested Ned.